Applications
of uniform standardized assessment procedures to population
samples of children in different societies make it possible
to statistically compare problems reported in the different
societies. L. A. Rescorla and colleagues from dozens of societies
collaborated to compare CBCL/6-18 scores for 55,508 children
in 31 societies, TRF scores for 30,957 students in 21 societies,
and YSR scores for 27,206 youths in 24 societies. The societies
were in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, all parts
of Europe, the Middle East, and North America.The very large
samples and the great diversity of the populations enabled
the researchers to test multicultural variations in problem
scores with more statistical power and precision than in any
previous studies. Statistically significant differences between
problem scale scores from different societies were of small
to medium magnitude. Scale scores for most societies were
near the "omnicultural mean" (the mean of scores
from all societies). However, scores from a few societies
were enough lower or enough higher than the omnicultural mean
to warrant different sets of norms. Consequently, data from
societies with relatively low scores and data from societies
with relatively high scores have been used to construct the
different sets of norms that are included in the ADM computer-scoring
Module for Ages 6-18 with Multicultural Options.Another important
finding was that scores within each society varied much more
than the mean scores varied between societies. In other words,
the differences within societies were greater than the differences
between societies.The researchers also identified certain
age and gender differences that were very consistent across
societies according to certain informants but not others.
For example, in most societies, parents and teachers rated
boys higher than girls on the Attention Problems syndrome,
but gender differences were negligible in self-ratings of
Attention Problems.To
determine the degree to which people in different societies
rated the same problems low, medium, and high, the researchers
computed correlations between the mean ratings obtained on
each item in each pair of societies. Averaged across all pairs
of societies, the correlations were .74 for the CBCL and TRF
and .69 for the YSR. This indicated considerable multicultural
similarity in the items that were rated low, medium, and high.